Barbarians: The Invasion

Barbarians: The Invasion is the new Tabula Games’ Kickstarter project! The game has an outstanding game board, faction sheets, a lot of wonderfully illustrated cards, resources and many other components…including miniatures!

In Barbarians: The Invasion you control a barbarian clan. Conquer civilizations, steal their knowledge, expand into new territories, worship demons.

We are working on this with Pierluca Zizzi. You might already know him from some of his most acclaimed games like Hyperborea, Signorie, Simurgh and Asgard. Barbarians: The Invasion is a game he had in mind for long time. It’s amazing to have an experienced designer in our team with an astonishing knowledge of board game playability! And now it’s time to make it!

Barbarians: The Invasion, onto the gameplay

We are making a game with a lot of different strategies and choices because we want the player to be free to mix them up during a game if the benefits outweigh the risks. If the chosen strategy at the beginning isn’t effective the clan is free to change it, adapting to the prevail. The flexibility of Barbarians: The Invasion has been one of our goals from the early phases of game design. Any transition must feel natural, even if Machiavellian planned.

The wheel

First, the core mechanics revolve around worker placement and movement programming, but then Pierluca decided to put a twist on it with the integration of a pretty unique element: the wheel. This mechanic allows a player to change the available path in a given turn, so the ability to adjust strategy on the fly is really important. We are still testing this thoroughly because we want to be sure it’s fair and something. But all the testers that played the prototype until now were excited about it!